Beer: Reviews & Ratings

Reviews by Zimbo:

A silky matt brown head. Fairly substancial colour as well. The nose is a penetratingly lively soft sweetie. Delicate lacing is left on the glass over time and sips. The taste is creamy delicate, gentle and delicious. A cleanliness and velvet also dominates.

Like Roger Moore. So suave but ultimately a bit superficial. (320 characters)

More User Reviews:

A 330ml can with a BB of May 2012, so it's just out of date. Picked up cheap at a supermarket (individual can being sold off). The ingredients include lactose, so it's a milk stout, and the ABV is surprisingly low at 3%.

Poured into a Sam Smith's pint glass. Pitch black, though revealed as a deep ruby hue when held to the light. Yields a decent head of creamy light brown foam that loiters for a few minutes before collapsing to a surface layer. Aroma of sweet, dark malt with notes of molasses, dried fruit, faint burnt grain and a mildly acidic lactic twang.

Tastes of sweet roasted malt with a dry finish. Notes of molasses, dried fruit, mild roasted grain, subtle stewed hops and a lactic sweetness. Dry upon swallowing, with a flavour that doesn't linger. Mouthfeel is smooth and creamy, with tingly carbonation. Good body. A faint aftertaste of sweet dark malt.

Quite nice - certainly a decent flavour for it's strength. Punches above its weight. Sweet and somewhat fruity, but goes down nicely. The body is especially good - runs over the tongue like velvet. I might pick up some more if it's on offer. Worth sampling. (1,130 characters)

Tasted a bottle, that was far beyond best before date. The beer had gone completly flat (no foam at all). That was very sad, because the aroma of the beer was very promissing; pure chocolate, cacao, raisens and tar.

Due to the missing gas the beer tasted odd, but still the sweetness (milksugar) and chocolat tones were there. A very dry after taste off charcoal and some dryed fruits. (386 characters)

This looks like a nice beer. Deep and dark, beautiful to behold. Nice off white 1 finger head that holds for the entire pint, good lacing. Smells good too, chocolat malts dominating the aroma. But I was not quite prepared for the taste. Sweet Sweet Sweet. It tasted like they added a tablespoon of sugar to my glass. Overpoweringly sweet. Which is unfortunate, because you can detect a fine underlying malt. I could never have more than one of these (449 characters)

I've always found Mackeson to be the most enjoyable of all the sweeter stours. The flavor has a nice balance of sweetness and body with distinct hints of chocolate. The aftertaste may be a bit much for some.

A - Poured a very dark brown, with a frothy brown head. Average retention.

S - Smell was of light malts, creame, and coffee.

T - Taste is quite sweet. Notes of chocolate, toffee, and milk sweetness. Almost espresso like. A tad too sweet for my tastes, but it wasn't horrible. Drinkability gets knocked down, due to it being hard to have more than one of these. Mouthfeel is creamy.

When I first met my wife, back in the 70's, she was a nurse at a RAF Hospital in Germany. Cans of this beer were kept in a fridge for pregnant ladies and mothers of new born babies, to help them produce milk and keep their iron intake up.

She used to sneak some out for me sometimes.

This can is newer though and Whitbread have sold their sole to Inbev, having killed a few breweriers off themselves.

330ml can, best before March 2007, drank on 1st April 2007, so it is out of date.

Poured into a Gordon thistle glass it looks fantastic, a very dark body with a huge foaming fawn head.

The aroma is malt and more malts, burnt sugar and biscuits.

Sweet and burnt toffee flavours mix with the malt taste, well it is a sweet stout, what was I expecting?

Tastes linger, you would never guess this is only 3.0% in acoholic volume, not watery at all.

A trip down memory lane for me, a pleasant one at that, I'll have another in 30 years time. (960 characters)

A - Deep black color with a small tan, bubbly head. Not much retention and really no lacing left.

S - Pretty faint but it is predominantly roasted malt with a fair amount of chocolate and some other dark sugary smells.

T - Roasted malts and bittersweet chocolate make up most of the flavor, and the backbone of the beer. Along with these is a bit of caramel and dark/burnt sugar. Some nutty and earthy flavors come through in the middle, and there is a very faint minty taste at the finish.

D - Goes down easy and with the ABV, you could drink it all day. The flavors are bad, and would definitely solve a thirst for a slightly sweet stout. Flavors are a little weak and don't build enough to really intrigue me into more though.

Notes: Not a bad beer, and definitely does not seem like a 3% ABV. Not overly sweet, but much more sweet than a normal stout. (944 characters)

pours deep black with a large fine brown head which settles to a thin lace.
starts out with a light roasty, almost burnt aroma that turns more floral candy sweet as it warms a bit.
mostly candy like sweet flavor as well. yeah, ok, its a sweet stout.
mouthfeel is super creamy smooth. really nice going down.
not sure if i can review this totally on style as its the first sweet stout ive had (that i can think of). stuck with a 3.0 for taste as i thought, "well, if its supposed to be sweet, it sure is".
overall, not bad, just a bit more on the sweet side than i would like. (582 characters)